Quoted: I was using Remington Express 4 buck and Federal Classic 00 buck. Horrible means too large, unevenly dispersed pattern. No pitting, I do appear to have some dirt (possibly plastic) around the forcing cone. What's the best way to clean that out? My bore brush isn't big enough. A dirty forcing cone can make that big a difference?
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Bore brush isn't big enough? Is it worn? You might need to get a new one. It should make good contact with the forcing cone.
When the wad fouling starts, it seems to compound itself. It cakes and builds. Any buildup, marks, scars, whatever, will indeed effect the pattern. The forcing cone is important. If it is rough, and/or short it can scar or flatside the shot. This is what produces the "flyers" in a pattern.
There's several different methods to get a shotgun bore really clean. This is about the quickest-
Get a dowel rod, about 3/8" diameter and cut a slot in one end. Measure the barrel and compensate for the choke tube (leave a choke tube in the barrel for this to protect the threads!). Put a piece of tape on the rod to mark the barrel length, minus the choke length. Take a piece of 0000 steal wool and unroll it. Insert it in the dowel slot and wrap the end. You want a ball that will be a little snug inside the barrel, but not to tight. Chuck the rod in your drill. Put the drill in Reverse; this will keep it from unscrewing the choke and boogering the threads.
You can also use a cleaning rod and a smaller gauge brush wrapped with steal wool, if you can get the handle off the rod. If it is a rod that screws together in sections, you can't run the drill in reverse. This works fine, just be careful and pay attention to the choke tube, and mark the rod.
I've tried solvents and different oils. The best seems to be Flex-hone honing oil.
Clamp the barrel down. Put 5 to 10 drops of honing oil in the chamber. Spin the rod in the chamber, then very slowly start moving it in to the forcing cone. As you start to move the rod in, you should feel some resistence. Progress very very slowly forward, since the forcing cone is the suspect area. Keep going forward till you have run through the whole barrel. Start withdrawing the rod at the same speed. Check the barrel for heating while you're doing this. Warm is okay, but I don't like getting my barrels hot. Spend some time going back and forth through the forcing cone area.
Run patches or rags through to remove the oil, debris, and slurry. Clean and oil the barrel as usual. The barrel will now be extremely clean, and probably have a better surface than it ever had.
For optimum patterns, the forcing cone should be 1 1/4" long. The forcing cone should be honed and the bore should be honed. And a final polish will steel wool as described above. The hones are available at Midway and Brownells. A honed and polished barrel are less suseptable to plastic fouling and rust. They are also extremely easy to clean. The patterns will be dramatically improved and the more evenly distributed.
I can hone the barrel for you if you'd rather go that route.
I hope this helps. If I can be of further assistance, just ask.